Jim brush is a 3' to 9' tall shrub sometimes with a tree-like trunk and with flexible, hairy branchlets and twigs.  The alternate leaves are ovate, elliptic or elliptic-oblong to 1-1/2" long, pubescent below and glabrous above.  The last characteristic along with the grayish-green color of the twigs is something that differentiates this variant from var. oliganthus, which is pubescent on both leaf surfaces and has reddish-brown twigs. The leaves also have minutely gland-toothed margins, three veins from the base, and are dark green above and paler below.  The inflorescence is a generally uninterrupted raceme or panicle, and each small, pale to deep blue flower has a hypanthium surrounding a fleshy disk below the base of the ovary to which are attached the five incurved sepals.  There are also five petals and five stamens which are positioned opposite to the petals.  The fruit is a ± spheric, crested, usually viscid, 3-valved capsule.  Jim brush blooms from February to April and may be found on dry, shrubby slopes in chaparral to about 4500' from Los Angeles and Riverside Counties north.  These pictures were taken along the Mt. Wilson trail in the front range of the San Gabriel Mts.

Click here for Latin name derivations: 1) Ceanothus 2) oliganthus 3) sorediatus.
Pronunciation: see-a-NO-thus ol-i-GAN-thus sor-ee-dee-AY-tus.
Click here for Botanical Term Meanings.